Democracy Now! has long covered the issue of climate change. We reported from the U.N. Climate Change Conferences in Warsaw, Doha, Durban, Cancún, and Copenhagen, and from the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change hosted by Bolivia. We’ve interviewed many of the world’s top scientists, writers, policy makers, activists, indigenous leaders and academics on the issue. We continue to follow the environmental movements to directly confront the root causes of global warming, and to advocate for climate justice, and sustainable alternatives.

Protests against the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún are growing as civil society groups are frozen out of the talks. Yesterday, indigenous and youth groups demonstrated both inside and outside the summit to call for their inclusion in the negotiations. On Tuesday, activists from Youth for Climate Justice led a walkout inside the heavily guarded conference halls. [includes rush transcript]

Inside the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, one of the most moving speeches on Tuesday was by Marcus Stephen. He is president of Nauru, the world’s smallest island nation, covering just eight square miles in the South Pacific. Stephen is the leader of the Pacific Small Island Developing States at the climate change talks. Johnson Toribiong, president of the island state of Palau, also spoke. [includes rush transcript]

At the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, La Via Campesina—the world’s largest federation of peasant and smallholder farmers—held what they called the "1,000 Cancún Global Day of Action for Climate Justice." Several thousand people took to the streets to march in protest of the summit. Democracy Now!’s Mike Burke filed this report. [includes rush transcript]

A large protest march is being planned today in Cancún organized by La Via Campesina and other groups. Alfredo Acedo, a spokesperson for UNORCA, described what is being planned. [includes rush transcript]

Protesters took to the streets of Cancún on Monday night to demonstrate against the U.N. COP16 talks. More than 150 demonstrators with the anti-capitalist bloc marched from the Via Campesina camp, where they are staying, through the streets and main thoroughfares in Cancún. [includes rush transcript]

John Vidal, the environment editor for The Guardian of London, is in Cancún after reporting on the Copenhagen summit a year ago. The Guardian is one the five news outlets to receive the massive trove of WikiLeaks cables ahead of time and has been publishing new revelations every day. We speak to Vidal about the latest diplomatic cables on the U.S. manipulation of the climate talks. [includes rush transcript]

Longtime activist Nnimmo Bassey has been awarded the 2010 Right Livelihood Award for "revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil production" by multinational corporations in Nigeria and for his leadership in advocating environmental justice and human rights throughout the world. During his speech, Bassey blasted rich nations for their efforts to use carbon markets as a mechanism to mitigate global warming. [includes rush...

Longtime environmental writer and activist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben has won the 2010 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Speaking outside the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, McKibben says, "In certain ways, [a U.S. walkout] would be the best thing that could happen. For 15 years ... the U.S. comes and says, weaken the agreement so we can get Congress to go along. Then Congress doesn’t agree anyway....

WikiLeaks is a hot topic at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún after secret diplomatic cables revealed new details about how the United States manipulated last year’s climate talks in Copenhagen. The Guardian newspaper reported the cables provide evidence that spying, threats and promises of aid formed part of a U.S. diplomatic offensive to shore up the controversial Copenhagen Accord. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman questions...

At the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern refuses to comment on the WikiLeaks cables’ account of discussions with the European Union on using climate aid to gain the backing of small island states for the informal Copenhagen Accord reached at last year’s U.N. climate summit. He also avoided answering a question addressing the removal of funding to Bolivia and Ecuador, whose...